Why the Body is the Center of our Universe

The body is the greatest and most valued of all idols that we have made. It’s also the most convincing. Through the false-self we believe we are the body and that the body is the center of our universe. Thus while we still mistake “it” as the goal of everything we think, do and value, we will be terrified of the power of our mind that made it. This translates to being fearful to discover the very source of everything we seem to see and experience.

If we are fearful to discover the single cause then we won’t ever take our power back and we agree to stay trapped in the illusion that we are victims of the body, others, the past, and the world. We will remain in denial and prefer to believe that we are at the mercy of phenomena that we our self projected.

If we allow the body to remain the goal of everything we think, do and value, we will continue to believe in a persistent sense of threat that we must independently protect our self from. Remember that any sense of fear together with its consequences such as illness, pain, scarcity and conflict, etc, is a direct effect of the mistaken belief that we are guilty. The single cause of all fear and its effects is un-forgiven guilt.

All fear arises from this crazy lie that we are guilty. Once guilt is believed there is always an anticipation of punishment. Every fear we have, including every defense we invest in, germinates exclusively from the insane belief that we deserve punishment – because we are guilty. All fear, simply put, is our fear that we will be punished by “something.”

This nebulous yet persistent “something” that we fear and try to protect our self from is cleverly disguised in endless forms of adversity (threats) that seem to appear externally in the body, others, and the world. It’s disguised this way as a smoke screen so we do not locate the singular and immediate source which is the erroneous belief that we are guilty and must protect our self from this “something” that we’re separate from.

It doesn’t want us to recognize a simple fact. Whatever we believe we are separate from – we will make our enemy. God is Love. We, as the Holy Self, are Love. Without opposite. Without threat.

While we mistake our self as the body we will believe unwittingly that God (Love) is our enemy and is out to annihilate us. This profound and unconscious confusion contributes to our fundamental “fear of God” (Love itself) and the incessant problems which this illusion manifests.

As I have said often in The End of Death trilogy, the body is our greatest repository for guilt (attack). In other words, it becomes the dumping ground for all our un-forgiven fears. And this is what kills it. Every phenomenon we mistakenly believe can threaten us is merely a disguise, a decoy, to sidetrack us from facing the single cause of all suffering – our un-forgiven belief that we are a separate entity, separate from our brothers, from God and from Love itself. This sense of being separate from Love is the only problem we have no matter the particular “form” of the problem.

“All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize the problem, and therefore not to let it be resolved. If you could recognize that your only problem is separation, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand that you have the means to solve them all. And you would use the means, because you recognize the problem.” W-79.6.

Every area of our life that we try to control alone arises from fear (guilt). The body happens to be the hub of the ego’s illusory wheel of existence. And the central focus for our pursuit of pleasure and our avoidance of pain – which are the same thing.

Remember the body is in service to the ego until we’ve advanced enough in trust to genuinely give the body and its appetites, over to Spirit entirely. Until then, the ego will retain those extra “special” appetites (sex, food, exercise, pride, pleasure, status, etc) and guard them jealously – until we recognize consciously the pain they bring. This is the basic confusion that Jesus speaks of; our independent pursuit of pleasure (including safety and security) – apart from Spirit – is really the unconscious attraction to pain.

Where do we seek our Safety, Security and Happiness?

Do we want freedom of the body? Or do we desire freedom of the mind (spirit)? Curiously, not many recognize that we can only ever choose one or the other – but not both. We cannot be dedicated to both at the same time. If we value the body then it completely blinds us to the value of the mind/spirit. And vice versa.

Where do I seek my safety, my security, my happiness and my peace? If it’s in the body and special relationships then I am seeking my safety, security, happiness and peace from an effigy that does not exist. And while I pursue my completion through the body, instead of with God, I will be fearful of it and resent it. And I will then inadvertently attack the body through weight gain, pain, illness, conflict, lack, aging, accidents and death, etc.

Recall that the body is an idea which dwells exclusively within the mind (not brain). As such the body is an effect of the mind and can never be a “cause” – of either sickness or health – of itself. The mind is cause and the body is its effect. Everything that seems to happen to the body is a direct result of a decision in the mind. The body-idea never leaves the mind therefore every seeming change in the body’s appearance or state comes from the mind.

There is no cause in the body although it sure appears that way. All the body’s changes in appearance, its health or sickness along with its seeming appetites, are administered solely by the mind. The body seems to have senses and appetites of its own yet these are sent by the ego to report seeming proof that we are separate from our Loving Source. And as I have mentioned many times before, all destructive bodily changes, including addictions, arise from the unhealed ego mind.

“The body cannot heal, because it cannot make itself sick. It needs no healing. Its health or sickness depends entirely on how the mind perceives it, and the purpose the mind would use it for.” T-19.I.3:1-3

Of the body and mind/spirit, which of these is front and center for you? In which of these, body or mind/spirit, do you seek for your happiness, safety, security and completion in this life?

Radical honesty reveals that for most of us, the body is valued as our moment to moment goal. Almost every thought we have involves thoughts or decisions about the body’s pain or pleasure based on the past. And every thought in between is devoted to planning ahead for its pleasure, sustenance, safety or security. The rest of the time we are defending or protecting it.

I laughingly share this insight, because it’s so ludicrous. And there is great relief in finally recognizing this and admitting it with no self-judgment. We cannot heal that which we have not recognized yet. The first step then is to recognize that we have mistakenly deceived our self.

While the body remains front and center we will continue to attract special relationships as they feed the false-self concept and the guilt required to keep suffering going.

As I said in Volume One of The End of Death, the body is the last of our special relationships that we willingly offer to Holy Spirit to be made Holy.

“Do you want freedom of the body or of the mind? For both you cannot have. Which do you value? Which is your goal? For one you see as means; the other, end. And one must serve the other and lead to its predominance, increasing its importance by diminishing its own.” … “Where freedom of the body has been chosen, the mind is used as means whose value lies in its ability to contrive ways to achieve the body’s freedom. Yet freedom of the body has no meaning, and so the mind is dedicated to serve illusions. This is a situation so contradictory and so impossible that anyone who chooses this has no idea of what is valuable.” T-22.VI.1-6,2:1-3

If we value the body and its appetites as our goal then we will use the ego mind (fear) to gain that goal. The false-self has its sights set on one goal and knows that while we prioritize the body as our goal we will achieve exactly what the ego wants for us – death.

We either devote our allegiance to the body – or – to the mind/spirit as our Holy Self. We cannot pursue both at once because they lead in opposing directions. If we choose the body then we will utilize the ego mind to feed its appetites, all the while using them as unconscious guilt-magnets which lead to conflict, disease and death.

The body is an illusory by-product of the false-self’s fierce declaration of independence from our Holy Self. Until we willingly turn the body over to Spirit, it will become a burdensome consequence of our misguided choice for autonomy from God.

We mistakenly believe that our boundless Essence is separate from others and imprisoned within these tiny walls of flesh. And then we make the devastating mistake of looking to death for freedom. Yet like a bird that confuses his safety with his cage, he will not break loose even though the cage door is wide open.

As we advance in our development of trust we recognize that the body is not our responsibility. To the degree we give the purpose of the body to Spirit is the extent to which it reflects the health and joy of its divine purpose.

What do we use the Body For?

Until we genuinely desire to re-purpose the body and our relationships with Spirit, the ego will monopolize its purpose and use its seeming appetites to further indulge in specialness. As we journey through the ego dream we unwittingly seek completion through the body. The body is our focus, the central idol until we hit the proverbial wall via unconscious self-attack.

And this manifests through a variety of human adversities. Thankfully, our genuine spiritual awakening usually begins after we’ve hit such a wall of ego disillusionment. In some way we have maxed-out through trying to run our life independently of Spirit, through the false-self and its mistaken values.

This stage, the undoing, is the first stage of our quest to awaken from our false sense of self and the relationships and world it has projected. We usually arrive here because we are disillusioned by relationships, ill-health, pain, depression, loss, identity crisis, or death. While the world judges these as bad, like every painful experience, they can be entirely and divinely re-purposed by Holy Spirit.

The undoing is in fact the beginning of learning to recognize the false-self’s destructive goal in every area of our life. Now we can begin to give our relationships, our income, our family, our body and our life quite literally over to Love itself – to the Holy Spirit. This is a thorough and divine re-purposing of the body’s role within each area of our life. This way the ego has less chance of using the body to attract more self-attack.

Imagine our life and all our many interests combined in a symbol as one large pie. The pie is divided into many segments. The body, family, spiritual path, romantic relationship, job, income, financial investments, social life, special interests, etc., – each one represents just one slice of the pie.

Many on the spiritual path still keep their spiritual beliefs and practice as a separate slice of the whole pie. Most keep it discreetly hidden from others while carefully compartmentalizing it. They especially separate their spiritual beliefs from their primary relationships, family roles, finances, body (sickness, health or exercise routine) and job. Yet genuine healing cannot occur when we compartmentalize our life this way.

The ego is exceptionally cunning at misappropriating the body in all the areas of value we have. It doesn’t want us to ever see without question, that all these areas are used to fuel the ego’s addiction to separation.

The ego uses the body for pride, pleasure and attack (such as relationship conflict, illness and death). Fundamentally, it seeks its completion through the body yet to the ego, completion means physical death. Death is its aim. That way it pursues us beyond the grave into another recycle phase of physical birth, amnesia and death. It seeks anything but to awaken from the dream altogether. And this is why we need to apply the principles of the Course to every area of our life.

While each slice of the ego’s pie is kept safely segregated then the ego’s destructive laws will run rife. It’s only when we truly commit to living these principles in every area of our life that we will finally experience miracles and open to the miraculous Laws of God.The Seven Key Principles of Holy Relationship is not just a tool but a way of life. We apply them to every relationship and to every area of our life.

Pride, pleasure and attack are all forms of attack, separation and individual independence from God and our brothers. Both pleasure and pain are one! While we pursue our fulfillment through the body we will mistakenly use it as our primary goal, as an idol to bring to us that which we secretly believe we cannot get from our True Identity, our Holy Self.

“One illusion cherished and defended against the truth makes all truth meaningless, and all illusions real. Such is the power of belief. It cannot compromise.” T-22.II.4:4-6

Real pleasure cannot be found separate from God. Anytime we attempt to extract pleasure, safety, security or happiness from someone or something – we will attract pain. This is why special relationships involve so much pain.

All real pleasure cannot be experienced alone, independently from our brothers or God. It must be shared to be real. Seeking individual pleasure, safety, security and happiness, apart from others and God, is seeking separation and suffering.

What do we defend our self from out of fear? What is the intent beneath all that we do? Is it from fear and doubt –or – from Love and trust? Are we really present? Do we align with Spirit and actually “feel” into inner guidance before we make decisions? Or do we make our decisions based on a past that doesn’t exist? And are we making future plans to protect our self from anticipated attack? Do we realize that if we defend our self from anticipated attack then we are attracting it? And are we making these decisions with Spirit, or with the ego?

When we eat, diet, take supplements, medication or exercise, is the ulterior motive to “save our body” from something we are fearful of? If so then we would do well to offer up the mistaken fear to Holy Spirit in exchange for the miracle.

What scraps of pleasure do we covet and defend? To the degree we value them, or are prideful of them, will be the degree they’re secretly used for attack.

“This course will be believed entirely or not at all. For it is wholly true or wholly false, and cannot be but partially believed. And you will either escape from misery entirely or not at all.” … “There is no part of Heaven you can take and weave into illusions. Nor is there one illusion you can enter Heaven with. T-22.II.7:4-6,8:1-2

Delight at winning the lottery, getting in shape, landing a new job, celebrating weight loss or getting well – and – despair over going bankrupt, being unfit, being fired, gaining weight, or getting sick, are all signs of a profound misidentification. Delight and despair concerning our body or that of another, are the same illusion. They are witnesses to our decision that we have identified our self as a body and not as the incorruptible and Holy Self.

The serial adventures of the body are either venerated or despised. But it is rarely recognized that both reactions are the same – meaningless.

This doesn’t mean we give up pursuing happiness. But it does mean that we decide not to pursue happiness through the ego any longer because that always leads to conflict and pain. Happiness is our natural state once we undo our false-self and its erroneous beliefs and values.

We do need to recognize (and not just intellectually) that True happiness is the natural result of being consciously present and aligned with our Holy Self. It’s also the natural result of forgiving our self for misidentifying with the ego, for perceiving any kind of attack.

This is living out from God’s Will which is “What” we are. Until we’re truly devoted to this, and we stop trying to run our body, relationships and life independently from Spirit, we will look for happiness, security and completion in all the wrong places. And we will attract a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. Life will seem like random chaos. And in the end, we will make the disastrous mistake of looking toward death for freedom, as the way to end the conflict of (ego) life.

Communication ends separation. Attack promotes it. The body is our chief communication device. It’s the means by which we integrate all slices of our life pie. If we use the body independently without consulting Spirit, we will use it for attack. And it will remain the mistaken center of our universe. When we learn to make our decisions with Spirit instead of the ego, then the body is used on behalf of union and True happiness.

“Communication ends separation. Attack promotes it. The body is beautiful or ugly, peaceful or savage, helpful or harmful, according to the use to which it is put. And in the body of another you will see the use to which you have put yours. If the body becomes a means you give to the Holy Spirit to use on behalf of union of the Sonship, you will not see anything physical except as what it is.” T-8.VII.4:1-5

NOTE: My bestselling book, The End of Death, is available in AUDIO BOOK, PAPERBACK & KINDLE. To download a free Chapter of the audio book and for more valuable tools and meditations, go to: www.EndOfDeath.com

Hi Sallie, Volume Two will be published later in 2018…probably Sept/Oct. Make sure you’re signed up for the newsletter as I’ll be able to keep you in the loop there. Here is the sign up: https://takemetotruth.org/newsletter/ 🙂

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Nouk Sanchez is a beacon of Light among the many wonderful teachers of A Course in Miracles. Her unconditional Love and depth of wisdom awaken a safe and uncompromising space for students to safely explore hidden fears and blocks to God’s Love.

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